U.S. asks NATO to lend a hand

January 16, 2003|By Stephen J. Hedges, Washington Bureau.

WASHINGTON — The United States formally has asked the NATO alliance to lend military and logistical support to a U.S. operation against Iraq, assistance that could speed the flow of warriors and weapons to the Persian Gulf battle theater, officials said Wednesday.

Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld confirmed that the U.S. asked NATO to consider providing support that would include overhead radar coverage from AWACS surveillance planes and mobile Patriot anti-missile batteries to protect Turkey, which shares a border with Iraq.

"Just as we're planning with individual countries, it seemed appropriate, to the extent NATO wished to, to begin that planning process," Rumsfeld said at a Pentagon briefing.

NATO facilities potentially could be used during the conflict to coordinate the movement of troops and equipment, allow aerial refueling, and provide air cover for ground forces. The alliance also could be asked to provide troops during the rebuilding phase when fighting ends.

The notion of alliance involvement in a possible U.S. war with Iraq was raised in November, Rumsfeld said, during a NATO summit in Prague. The subject also is under discussion at NATO meetings this week.

Turkey, one of NATO's 19 members, has expressed some reluctance to participate in an Iraq invasion. The secular Muslim country's prime minister, Abdullah Gul, has thus far put off a U.S. request to use Turkish bases and ports as staging areas.

Turkey is fearful that the war could empower the Kurdish population in Northern Iraq and embolden its own Kurdish dissidents. In addition, Turkish leaders worry that a war with Iraq could damage trade along the border.

"There's an extraordinary sensitivity in Turkey right now," said Kenneth Allard, a retired U.S. Army colonel and a senior associate at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. "And they're particularly sensitive to us using Turkey as a staging area."

Gul, however, is allowing visits by 150 U.S. military surveyors to 10 bases to determine their usefulness to U.S. forces. Turkish officials have said that the U.S. has requested permission to move as many as 80,000 troops through those bases in the event of a war with Iraq.

The request by the United States to place NATO Patriot missile batteries in Turkey is aimed at assuaging Turkish fears of an Iraqi retaliation, possibly with chemical weapons. During the 1991 Persian Gulf war, Turkey allowed the U.S.-led coalition to use its Incirlik air base. U.S. and British warplanes patrol the northern "no-fly" zone in Iraq from the base.

Other NATO members have expressed varying degrees of support for the Bush administration's campaign against Iraq. Britain may commit up to 22,000 troops, while Germany has stated bluntly that it will not participate in an attack.

Rumsfeld said the NATO request was part of a broader effort to coordinate planning with foreign governments for a possible attack against Iraq.

"The State Department sent out . . . three or four or five dozen cables asking for countries that are interested in cooperating and getting involved in the planning process, so that in the event force has to be used, that planning will have taken place," he said.

"The same thing's true with NATO. We are proceeding to flow forces in an orderly way."

The number of those forces increased dramatically last weekend, when Rumsfeld approved the dispatch of 65,000 service personnel to the Persian Gulf region. But the defense secretary said that, even though President Bush has said time is running out for Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, there is no set timetable for military action.

"We also recognize that the timing of the decision-making is not in our hands," Rumsfeld said. "So what we have to do is to try to do what we're doing in a way that gives the president and the world options to use force if, in fact, that becomes necessary."